Tom Lounsbury: For small game, give me an air rifle any day

Tom Lounsbury

Published
1:49 am EDT, Thursday, August 16, 2018

Extreme Big Bore Air Rifles President Al Avram, of Mayville, is test-firing a newly assembled .45 caliber while company VP Brent Hoag looks on. The company's air rifles are very accurate and have recently proven to be fully capable of taking African cape buffalo. Their rifles (.35-caliber and larger) are also legal for deer hunting in Michigan's Limited Firearms Zone. (Tom Lounsbury/Hearst Michigan) less

Extreme Big Bore Air Rifles President Al Avram, of Mayville, is test-firing a newly assembled .45 caliber while company VP Brent Hoag looks on. The company's air rifles are very accurate and have ... more

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Extreme Big Bore Air Rifles President Al Avram, of Mayville, is test-firing a newly assembled .45 caliber while company VP Brent Hoag looks on. The company's air rifles are very accurate and have recently proven to be fully capable of taking African cape buffalo. Their rifles (.35-caliber and larger) are also legal for deer hunting in Michigan's Limited Firearms Zone. (Tom Lounsbury/Hearst Michigan) less

Extreme Big Bore Air Rifles President Al Avram, of Mayville, is test-firing a newly assembled .45 caliber while company VP Brent Hoag looks on. The company's air rifles are very accurate and have ... more

Tom Lounsbury: For small game, give me an air rifle any day

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Air guns have been around quite a long time, actually since the 1600s and maybe even further back than that.

Air rifles were even used in warfare, and Napoleon didn't appreciate opposing special snipers armed with Belgium-made air rifles (in the .40 to .45 caliber range that were actually 10-shot repeaters) that caused morale issues in the French ranks.

The fact that there was no telltale smoke from an air rifle caused the French to wonder if some "magic" was involved during a time when flintlock muskets were the primary arm (Napoleon showed no quarter to a sniper captured with an air rifle).

Lewis and Clark even took an air rifle on their famed exploration (a repeater similar to those used against Napoleon's troops), no doubt due to the influence of President Thomas Jefferson, who appreciated what would be considered high-tech gadgets in that day. Native Americans who witnessed a demonstration of this air rifle certainly believed it was some sort of magic.

But air rifles were never very prevalent in the early 1800s because they were quite expensive to produce. However, examination of old, original examples shows they were very well made, quite ingeniously by craftsmen using natural materials such as horn for gaskets.

A pneumatic valve thought to be invented much later, was employed because air guns/rifles of that time usually required containers of compressed air charged beforehand with special hand pumps.

Sometimes, this compressed air storage was in the form of a metal bladder affixed just forward of the trigger guard, or, in the case of the example taken on the Lewis and Clark Expedition, it was actually the buttstock (the snipers engaging the French carried extra pre-charged buttstocks).

Like a lot of American shooters, my first air gun experience was with a lever-action Daisy "Red Ryder" BB gun.

I bought each of my three sons Red Ryders when they were old enough, and I tutored them through the fundamentals of firearm safety and marksmanship. It is a good way to start kids out (under adult supervision, though, because BB guns, although considered toys, truly require safety eyewear because the steel BB's can bounce back at the shooter if a hard surface is struck).

The first truly powerful pneumatic rifle I ever saw as a kid and had a chance to shoot came about when a city cousin came to visit our farm and brought along his pump-up .17 caliber Benjamin.

It featured a shiny, chrome-plated barrel and a dainty, Tootsie Roll-shaped wooden forearm that also served as a handle for giving the handy little single-shot rifle several pumps to charge it with compressed air.

This rifle could fire the typical steel BB's or hollow-based lead pellets and put my Daisy Red Ryder to shame in regards to plinking tin cans.

My Daisy only put slight dimple-like dents in the cans when it knocked them over. The pump-up Benjamin literally blew holes through the cans and bounced them a little distance. Needless to say, I was impressed and wanted a Benjamin.

I eventually purchased my own pellet gun, a pump-up .20 (5mm)-caliber Sheridan "Blue Streak." This strictly uses hollow-based lead pellets and it is quite versatile in regards to power according to the amount of pumps, with eight pumps creating the maximum pressure, which is nothing to snoot at.

I've bagged a nice quantity of small game (especially squirrels) with this pneumatic and have left it just the way it is with its rugged iron sights.

A favorite air rifle for me is a .17-caliber single-stroke (and single-shot) Gamo that I've topped with a 3-9 X Bushnell scope (remember to use optics designed specifically for air rifles).

This requires only breaking the rifle open, slipping in a pellet and closing it, which leaves the gun fully charged, loaded and ready to shoot.

Like the Blue Streak, the Gamo has efficiently accounted for a nice quantity of small game, including robust and plump raccoons and even tenacious woodchucks, with well-placed pellets.

The key is to use pellets designed specifically for hunting, and due to the growing popularity of air rifles today, there is quite an array to select from. I generally use hollow-point lead pellets, but also use some that are soft lead and feature a minute steel BB in the tip that creates amazing expansion and penetration.

I also discovered and purchased a 1940 vintage .22 caliber Crossman that can take up to 10 pumps, features peep-sights and is a dream to use in the squirrel woods.

These three air rifles are favorite hunting and target arms for me, I'm quite satisfied with their performance and they are the most economical to fire of any shooting pieces that I own.

I like the fact that I can manually charge each of them right on the spot in the field before each shot, and all I need is a small pouch filled with hunting pellets. However, the modern air rifle has been evolving in recent years by leaps and bounds.

There are even large caliber models that can handle everything from coyotes to bear, wild boar and deer. These of course use pre-charged air cylinders not unlike the air rifles of yesteryear. There are various ways to charge the cylinders, and the typical air compressor isn't going to do the job because of the intense pressure involved.

Extreme Big Bore Air Rifles of Mayville is a Thumb-area business which makes top quality air rifles in .308 to .72 calibers as well as a 28 gauge shotgun that has been used to take wild turkeys.

Their .45 caliber recently became the first air rifle to ever take an African cape buffalo, attesting to the effectiveness of these unique rifles which not only use compressed air, but helium and nitrogen that can increase velocities even more.

The reservoir under the barrel can be used for three shots, and spare reservoirs as well as a charging canister can be conveniently carried into the field. I had an opportunity to test-fire the .45 caliber rifle, which offered hardly any recoil and possessed an abrupt report on the order of a .410.

I also had no problem achieving tight groups at 50 yards and there was no question it could easily handle 100-yard shots with deadly effect.

Air rifles (.35 caliber or larger) are now legal for deer hunting in Michigan's Limited Firearms Zone, and no doubt I'm going to have to give one a try.

Whenever I have any questions about air rifles, I contact Jon Finkbeiner of Wilmot, who takes modern air rifles to the next level. He has been working and tinkering with them since he was a kid and is totally smitten with the entire and fast evolving process.

Finkbeiner sells both new and used air rifles and reconditions old ones (something he did for me in the case of the vintage Crossman which needed new seals and a tuning) and also sells the wide variety of pellets, including the felt cleaning pellets that when fired down the barrel, clean it in a very simple manner.

Although air rifles aren't as expensive as they once were many years ago, some modern models can still be a bit pricey. The pump-up, single-shot Benjamin (available in .17 and .22 calibers) and the pump-up, single-shot Sheridan (in .20 caliber only, Blue or Silver Streak) are USA made (both brands are now owned by Crosman) and can be had at a moderate price. I wouldn't hesitate recommending either for someone starting out.

I know that I have never tired of my Blue Streak, the vintage Crossman and my Gamo, and they are my most fired hunting arms due to their economical cost of shooting and moderate noise level. (While it is usually recommended by the manufacturers, I've never felt the need to wear hearing protection when firing my air rifles; but then again, my hearing has already been hammered by years of shooting regular firearms.)

Needless to say, especially when it comes to squirrel hunting, a favorite passion of mine, one of the dependable hunting arms I use these days is quite often a modern air rifle.